Cuba

The grant the panel dates to 1769 followed earlier settlers. Four men, Pedro Barela, Jacinto Barela, José Sánchez and Juan García, settled on the Rio Puerco here in 1736; three decades later a larger group petitioned for the San Joaquín del Nacimiento grant. Their town stood east of the present village, on a rocky hill between the Rito del Nacimiento and the Rito de la Leche, at the northwestern edge of the Spanish empire. When it emptied, families scattered to Vallecitos, San Ysidro and Cañones. The Navajo name for the place is Na'azísí Bito', Gophers' Water.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historical Marker Cuba In 1769, Spanish Governor Pedro Fermin de Mendinueta made the San Joaquin del Nacimiento land grant to 35 pioneering families who had settled the headwaters of the Rio Puerco in 1766. The community was later abandoned, owing to raids by frontier Indian tribes, but was resettled in the late 1870s. Originally known as Nacimiento or La Laguna, it was renamed Cuba when the post office was established in 1887.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Jemez Historic Site — 23 mi
  The stone walls of a 1620s mission church standing among the ruins of Gisewa, a Jemez village named for the hot springs beside it.

More markers nearby

• Cuba — 1.6 mi
• San Juan Basin — 4.7 mi
• Continental Divide — 10 mi
• Jémez State Monument — 23 mi